Courage: Invasion
by Chaosbot
Summary: Courage. It is the actions in which define us. In war, there is no better action. Courage will save your friends, families, and even yourself. So do not hide. Do not fear. Find your courage, and fight to survive. War does not wait for you to gather yourself up. It does not wait for you to think. Courage will save all you love. Courage is the ability to do things everyday. So fight.


**7:00 A.M EST, New York City**

"Go, go, go!" The sergeant shouted, and my squad stepped down from the heavy, armored truck that had drove us through the warzone, rockets and bullets flying everywhere, a couple of potshots had actually hit our vehicle. It was crazy, and the enemy wasn't letting up anytime soon.

My squad of four sprinted to a hastily set-up command tent, the canvas, camouflage flapped in the wind, like flags. Inside, there were a row of laptops and computers, all humming with chatter. People scurried around like busy bees. In the right corner of the tent, there were a couple of ammo boxes, and some extra firearms piled on top.

An awaiting lieutenant beckoned over to us. He looked stressed out, but he still laid out a map on the table.

"Okay, your mission, is to retrieve this piece of Intel that the enemy has stolen from us. It was stolen at O Five Hundred. Get it back. And then come right back, or destroy it if you have to. There are rumors the president was to bomb the hell out of this place before it's lost. Now get going!"

I cursed. It was O Seven Hundred, now. The information had been gone for at least two hours. And we were in New York City. There was no we could get to the edge of the metropolis. By the time we were going to get even remotely close, the enemy, Kronos' men, would be long gone.

"Alright guys, gear up!" I told my team. My squad was small, but strong in combat. My mechanic and engineer was Leo, who could repair broken trucks, or damaged tanks faster than anyone in the standing army. Next up was Jason, playing support on my squad. He could hold himself in a firefight better than most. He also was a former member of the airborne division in the SEALS.

Piper was my third girl, and our medic. She was very good at what she did, and was pretty good with small machine guns. Even better at charming men. But she fell for Jason, and now they were dating. Not too good in a warzone.

Last was me. Percy Jackson, assault on the Relay Squad, our team name, and five –year veteran of the Navy SEALS. War is a dangerous and ugly thing. But if that is what it takes to protect the ones I love back home, then I would gladly do it. But now the war was here, at our home.

I check the safety on my M18, and on my sidearm, the trusty Glock. "Weapons free. Shoot enemies when you see them." I called to my team. They all nodded back.

We all clambered into an old Army issue Hummer, and we drove underneath fallen buildings and crumbled skyscrapers. I felt sad. This used to be my hometown, but now it was just shreds, courtesy of Kronos' men.

Suddenly, the Hummer flipped, and my world went upside down. We flipped into a building, and slammed into it, breaking the old brick wall, and landing in someone's old bed room.

I unstrapped my seatbelt, and freed my gun. "Everyone, okay?" Leo asked.

"Okay." "Yes," "Yup," My team responded. I kicked open the jammed door of the Hummer, and crawled out, careful not to cut myself on the broken glass that littered the floor.

An RPG must have hit the underside of the Hummer, and its armor protected us from exploding in fire. But the force flipped the truck, and sent it into here we are.

A bullet slammed into the underside of the truck, and I all but threw myself on the ground.

"Sniper!" I hissed.

My team instantly froze, and carefully and quietly crawled out on the back side of the vehicle.

I lifted my ACOG scope to my face, and looked around on the approaching buildings. No movements. Not a single thing.

"Jason, see anything?" I asked. He nodded, and unfastened a pair of binoculars from his backpack. He scanned the surrounding buildings, and said, "Noth- oh, wait! On the fifth floor of the glass building, by the willow tree."

My eyes instantly flashed to the building he mentioned, and I noticed nothing. But I took his word for it.

"Okay guys, cover me, I'm go in to see if I could possibly hit him." I crept from my position, and cradled my M18. I hand-signaled my team. One, two, three!

I dead out sprinted into the abandoned street, and immediately started zig-zagging, and headed for the nearest cover, which was an old Prius.

I slid into the ground, and ducked under the front of the car, which was beat up and burnt black, once a silver color.

A bullet pierced the glass, showering me in it, but now I knew where the sniper was. I raised my scope and saw a face reloading an old hunting rifle, and I squeezed the trigger.

The man jolted around, and fell to the ground.

I immediately felt saddened, but such was the way of life. Be killed or kill.

Then, I sat back down into a crouch, and waited a few minutes, my heart pumping with adrenaline. Then, I signaled the all-clear, satisfied that there were no more threats.

My team jogged over to the Prius, and we all sat down.

"Everybody good?" I asked. Piper was bandaging a wound on Jason's army, and Leo was seeing if he could hotwire the Prius.

"How about the Hummer?" I asked. Leo shook his head. "Looked at the engine. It's gassed. Plus, some of the tires are blown out from the RPG. We could salvage the machine gun, but that's about it."

I nodded, and after Jason get patched up, we went over to the smoking wreckage of the Hummer, and lifted the machine gun off it. We collected some ammo, and all the food, but left the rest.

Meanwhile, Leo had managed to hotwire the Prius, and it was running, headlights on and all. I brought up my carbine knife, and I cut a rectangular hole on the roof of the car.

Leo bolted in the heavy machine gun, and I sat on top, with Jason and Piper on the bottom.

A huge rocket shot through the sky, and hit a section of a nearby skyscraper, sending it down in a deadly hail of glass, steel, and concrete.

We all glanced at each other.

"Best if we hurry." I said. The others all agreed hastily, and we set off.

The car rumbled over a couple of blocks of total destruction. Damaged cars and broken merchandise were scattered all over the streets. We even encountered a dead squadron of US troops.

We all felt extremely saddened and grieved after that, not speaking just lost in our own thoughts.

New York City was a complete mess. The enemy had aimed at the tallest skyscrapers and the most historic buildings. Many civilians were able to get out, but some were not. Those who were stuck in New York died, and if they didn't they were living in absolute fear. I just felt lucky that my parents were able to get out before the invasion started.

Rumors had it that the president of the U.S.A wanted to bomb the hell out of New York City, regardless of the troops that were in it. I wasn't too sure if that was legal, but it could be done in this situation.

_Crack. Crumble_. "Shit," Leo said, "The car's out of gas."

Piper shrugged, "Well, at least we're safe."

Then, muzzle flashes lit up from the coffee shop across the street.

"Gods!" Jason shouted, and he tackled Piper behind the seat. Leo yelped, and dived behind the car, while I immediately opened fire at the coffee shot.

The Eagle D-22 machine gun ripped heavy steel bullets at the shop, shattering windows, and breaking wood.

I stopped after shooting half the ammo, when another car came squealing down the street.

"Don't shoot!" Piper commanded, "Friendlies!"

I didn't open fire, but I kept my finger on the trigger. Eight people fell out of the bruised car, and ran out.

I saw that they were wearing American flag patches on their shoulders.

"Over here!" I waved. A girl with dark brown hair, and hard eyes spotted me, and herded the rest over.

Then, what happened next was a feat that I would never be able to comprehend what happened. An enemy soldier, who was bloody from the machine gun fire, climbed out from behind the coffee shop counter, fired a freaking RPG at us.

Everyone managed to dive out of the way in the friendly group, but a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes got her ankle stuck in a twisted wire.

Not thinking, my body just went on its own, and hurdled down from the car, and dived into the girl, knocking both of us down.

The RPG flew over our heads, nearly taking off my hair.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Leo shoot down the enemy with a quick burst from his Quikfire Q-98 rifle.

Then the rocket exploded in the building behind us, and everything went dark.


End file.
